This photo was taken for my profile on the Elsewhere website. I couldn't resist this mountain of dolls hidden away in the attic.

Yesterday I met with the Elsewhere curators to discuss my project proposal... it goes a little something like this...

The
dolls are lonely. They’ve been in the dark far too long. I’ve come to
rescue them from the toynado (see below) detritus and give their dismembered limbs a
reason to live, a way to live. After all, this is a “living” museum,
isn’t it? It’s time to bring the fleshy fake mini humans back into our
living space. To turn their peachy plastic skin into an organ of
interaction and discovery. In
addition to doll limbs, I’d also like to incorporate the truncated arms
and legs of the mannequins I’ve seen laying around. Like dolls,
mannequins are human stand-ins, but rather than objects of play, they
are instruments of display. I
plan to build an immersive and interactive space/structure out of the
doll and mannequin parts that will function as both playground and work
station. Who says work and play can’t co-exist? The parts will come
together to comprise a fleshy mass, an ambiguous super doll-thing that
responds to human touch. Hinges and pulley systems will facilitate
motion and interactions, causing parts to wiggle and rise when poked and
pulled in just the right places. Seating and a desk-like surface will
be integrated into into the design, to encourage playful banter and
brainstorming sessions for collaborators of all sorts. Flesh
is the human body’s largest, toughest, most sensitive organ. By it and
through it we experience and respond to our surroundings. Using the
inanimate doll flesh, I will create a new kind of organ: one that
fosters play and the gestation of big wild and crazy ideas, in which
nothing is too absurd. Organ and incubator. For
my work, this project is an attempt to integrate my immersive 3-D
environments and my 2-D collages. Seeing the doll/mannequin parts as
collage elements, I plan to construct a space that might resemble one of
my collages, come to life. The viewer is an actor in the real-life
collage/construction, pulling, poking, and prodding at odd (yet
compelling) orifices and protrusions, evocative of human form.